We all know what rubber is. We have seen it
on the wheels of cars; we have used it to rub
out mistakes in drawing; we have played
games with rubber balls. When we press a
piece of rubber we change its shape. But as
soon as we stop pressing, the rubber springs
back to its first shape; we therefore say that
rubber is elastic.
Rubber was first used to make rubber balls. In
1492, Columbus sailed from Spain and
discovered America. One of the many strange
things which he and his men saw in America
was a game played with rubber balls. They
noticed that the rubber balls bounced much
better than the balls which they had used in
their own country. When they sailed home
again they told their friends that the balls
were made from the gum of a tree.
Hundreds of years had passed before rubber
was used in Europe and other parts of the
world. Small pieces of rubber were brought to
Europe, and kept by people who liked to
collect strange things; but no one thought that
rubber could be useful. Then an artist found
out that rubber would rub out pencil marks.
That was one of the first uses of rubber, and
that is how it came to be called 'rubber'.
Rubber trees grow only in countries where it is
very hot and very damp. These countries are
near the equator; so it was in the countries
near the equator that men went out to hunt for
the rubber trees. It was not easy to find the
trees. In those hot damp lands, trees of many
kinds grow so close together that it is difficult
to travel through the forests.
The men who were hunting for rubber trees
found them growing wild in South America, in
Central America, and in West Africa. Nearly all
the world's rubber came from the great
forests of America and West Africa.


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